


The Sunny Side

by dracoqueen22



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Episode Related, F/F, Possibly Unrequited Love, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracoqueen22/pseuds/dracoqueen22
Summary: There’s nothing Beau won't do if it’ll make Jester smile even if it means fixing something as minor as a sunburn.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82





	The Sunny Side

There aren’t a lot of places to hide on the Balleater, but it’s amazing how hard it can be to find someone when you’re looking for them.  
  
Luckily, Caduceus is one of the easiest members of the Mighty Nein to locate since he’s not prone to sulking in solitude or lurking in the darkness. Beau’s not sure how Caleb manages to make himself scarce or avoid her, but it’s a magical trick she kind of wants to know.  
  
Anyway, she finds Caduceus in the galley on her first try, since he hadn’t been on the aft keeping a look out like usual. He’s got a vast array of food he must have magically produced spread out on the table, and he’s looking at it like it holds the key to the universe.  
  
Caduceus is fucking weird, man.  
  
“Hello, Beau,” he says without looking up at her, and it’s still weird when he does that. How is he so perceptive? She’s as quiet as Veth, especially when she’s trying.  
  
Whatever.  
  
“Yo, Caduceus.” Beau gives him a jaunty salute that he doesn’t return, save to flick an ear. “You got a second?”  
  
“Sure.” He looks up at her finally, and his smile is warm and interested. “What can I help you with?”  
  
Beau gnaws on her bottom lip. “Look, so I need like... Do you have something for burns?”  
  
Caduceus blinks. “What kind of burns?” he asks, and the corner of his mouth lifts up. “Was Fjord cooking again?”  
  
Beau barks out a laugh before she can stop it. “No. This is for like a sunburn.” She gestures at her shoulders.  
  
“Ohh. For Miss Jester!” His eyes light with understanding before he folds his arms and furrows his brow. “Hmm.” His tail starts a slow swish behind him, swing, swing, swing.  
  
Beau waits with a new patience she’s pretty fond of. Caduceus kind of demands patience. He’s not dumb, but it takes him a bit to think sometimes.  
  
Her eyes wander, taking in the kitchen, recently saved from Fjord’s last attempt at cooking until Caduceus stepped in to save the day. The smell of burnt… something lingers despite the open window.  
  
Caduceus snaps his fingers, and Beau startles.  
  
“I know just the thing,” he says and goes to the shelf of plants he has near the porthole.  
  
Beau knows a bunch of them are herbs because she’s sniffed them, and seen them in the food, but there’s a few she’s not sure about, and one of them should not be touched. She knows because she tried.  
  
Caduceus takes down the poky one and produces a small knife, cutting off one of the leaves. He hums over it, pulls out a bowl, and drops the leaf into it.  
  
Beau moves closer, peering into the bowl, as Caduceus takes a grindstone and smashes it, squeezing out a thick, clear jelly. It smells very, very planty, but it’s not a bad smell at least. Not like the mushrooms Caduceus tries to feed them sometimes. He swears they taste good, but Beau can’t get past the stink.  
  
“What the fuck?” Beau asks.  
  
“It’s aloe,” Caduceus says with a laugh and hands her the bowl, massacred leaf and the gooey stuff it bled out pooled at the bottom.  
  
Beau arches an eyebrow. “She eats it?”  
  
“No, you rub it on the burns.” Caduceus nudges it closer to her. “Though I guess there are some species you can eat. I wouldn’t recommend eating this one though.”  
  
“Oh. Duh.” Beau takes the bowl, her nose wrinkling. It’s not that it smells bad, but it definitely doesn’t look appealing. Not like Caduceus’ usual salves.  
  
Beau salutes him anyway, tucking the bowl under one arm. “Thanks, Caduceus. This’ll really help.”  
  
“No problem.” He gives her a distracted wave as he returns to contemplating the provisions. “Good luck.”  
  
Good luck...? What the fuck does that mean?  
  
Beau crinkles her forehead, but Caduceus isn’t paying her any more attention. His lips are moving like he’s quietly counting, and well, she guesses that’s it.  
  
Damn, he’s weird.  
  
Beau shakes her head and goes in search of Jester, who is one of the hardest to find on a good day, but pretty easy this time. She’s below decks and as far from the sun as she can get without being completely in the dark, perched in the room they’ve taken as their refuge, with the porthole open and a seabreeze wafting inside.  
  
“Sup, Jess.”  
  
She looks up from her sketchbook, smiling brighter than the sun.  
  
“Hi, Beau.” Jester grins, despite the flush of purple over her skin, the tightness of pain around her eyes. She’s stripped to her innermost layers to keep fabric away from her burned skin, and there’s far too much bare skin for Beau’s sanity.  
  
She tries to keep her gaze averted without making it obvious, which means she ends up looking all around the room like an idiot, because she doesn’t want to be caught staring. Somehow, it’s more alluring that Jester is still covered in all the right places, but her shoulders are more visible.  
  
“Got something for you,” Beau says.  
  
Jester perks up, her tail twitching through the air. “Pastries?”  
  
“I’m pretty awesome, but I can’t make pastries out of thin air,” Beau says with a grin. She wiggles the bowl and shoves it under Jester’s nose. “Got this stuff from Caduceus.”  
  
Jester’s nose wrinkles. Damn, that’s so fucking cute. It should be illegal.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“Nothing weird, promise.” Beau sits next to her, and Jester scoots aside to make room because she’s awesome like that. “It’s aloe or something. For your sunburns.”  
  
“Really?” Jester lights up and finally takes the bowl, sticking her finger into the pale jelly and giving it a sniff. “Smells okay.” She dabs it on her other arm, smoothing it over a dark purple splotch.  
  
She groans like she does when Caduceus is healing her or she stands up and stretches after spending too long sketching. “Ohhh. That feels tons better. Thanks.”  
  
“No sweat. The purple’s cute and all, but it seemed like you were hurting so… you know…” Beau shrugs, trying to aim for caring, but not too much, else everything she’s trying to hide will slip right out and ruin everything.  
  
Beau can’t think of a single thing she’s wanted to work so hard to keep.  
  
“Could you get my back?”  
  
Beau blinks. “... What?”  
  
Jester beams at her, oblivious and sweet and hopeful as she holds up the bowl with aloe-slick fingers. “My back,” she says, and her tail points like an arrow to the nape of her neck and the back of her shoulders. “I can’t reach.”  
  
Fuck.  
  
It’ll look weird if she says no, won’t it?  
  
“Uh, sure,” Beau says, and sticks her fingers into the plant goo. “Let me know if I hurt you.”  
  
This is gonna be a special kind of torture, isn’t it? Uko’toa’s revenge, maybe, for refusing to let him come and take Fjord.  
  
Jester giggles as Beau very, very gently dabs the aloe on the back of her shoulders and neck. “You’d never do that,” she says, sweeping her hair up and out of the way so Beau can work.  
  
“You’d be surprised,” Beau murmurs, but she’s not thinking of physical pain, or the times any one of them have lost their will to an enemy. She’s thinking of how she almost walked away, and what Jester did to make sure she stayed.  
  
Beau knows she’s got a lot of making up to do for that. She doesn’t know where to start. She doesn’t know if she can even do enough honestly.  
  
“No, I wouldn’t,” Jester says, stubborn as always, jaw set. “I know you, Beau. I trust you, and even if you did hurt me, it wouldn’t be on purpose.” Her tail flicks through the air, and Beau dodges it with a quick bob of her head.  
  
She can’t think of a damn thing to say in response. Jester’s so fucking sweet. Like criminally sweet, and it hurts, like a punch to the chest, how much Beau fucking loves her.  
  
So instead she gets another dollop of the aloe, soothes it over Jester’s purpled, inflamed skin and says, “This all right?”  
  
Jester hums and sags a little in front of her. “It feels so much better. Thank you, Beau.”  
  
“Thank Caduceus. He made it.”  
  
“Yeah, but you asked him to and got it for me,” Jester points out, throwing a grin over her shoulder which makes Beau’s heart skip a beat and her pulse flutter.  
  
Beau drops her gaze, focusing on smoothing the aloe over every purple blush. “True,” she admits, and that’s when Jester attacks, her body swiveling around, her arms coming up around Beau in an embrace, her chin hooking over Beau’s shoulder.  
  
Beau goes absolutely still. She’s not even sure she breathes, until she reminds herself she’s supposed to act like a normal person and not a lovestruck idiot, so she hugs Jester back, and forgets about the aloe on her fingers, smearing it on Jester’s top.  
  
“Thank you,” Jester says.  
  
How does she do that? Just melt Beau with a couple of words and the warmth of a hug? It’s fucking unfair is what it is.  
  
“You’re welcome,” Beau sighs.  
  
Jester giggles and hops up from the bed, stretching her arms above her head. “Man, I feel great now, and I’m tired of being cooped up down here.” She sticks her hands on her hips and grins. “Wanna go up on deck with me?”  
  
_I’d go anywhere with you._  
  
“Sure, why not? I mean I was gonna take a nap but…” Beau trails off with a one-armed shrug and shoots Jester a lazy grin. “We could grab Yasha for a game or something.”  
  
Jester hops in place, arms tucked in celebration. “Fjord, too!”  
  
Ouch.  
  
“Yeah, of course,” Beau says, and she’s proud of her smile for not slipping even a little. She loves her captain as much as she loves Jester, though it’s a different kind of love. How can she even think for a moment that it’s unfair?  
  
“I mean, if he’s not busy,” Beau corrects.  
  
Jester waves her off and hooks an arm through Beau’s, immediately tugging her toward the door and nearly pulling Beau off balance. “We’ll ask everyone,” she declares as if it’s a foregone conclusion they’re all going to say yes.  
  
Then again, she’s not wrong.  
  
“It’ll be fun,” Beau says, because as long as she’s with Jester, she’s guaranteed to be happy. Doesn’t matter how or what, she can take it.  
  
If Jester’s smiling, then Beau’s happy,too.  
  
It’s enough.  
  


***


End file.
